Best Doctor
“It’s a fairly informal office,” says Elisabeth Gold, ruminating on the reasons why The Coast readers would choose her as Halifax’s Best Doctor. “I don’t wear a white coat.” Gold’s appeal also speaks to an ease of communication and experience: She’s been working in Halifax since 1989, and is a previous winner of this award…
The shame game
To the editor, Everyone sees the annual United Way campaign posters and bulletins all over the Metro area. The United Way is a valuable organization and always deserving of praise for the wonderful work it does for the communities we live in. It is one of many deserving charities and that’s my point. At my…
West is best, east least?
To the editor, Here’s what I find interesting: At least twice a week I read about or hear about the shortage of qualified, skilled workers in Nova Scotia because everyone’s moving out west. Here’s my problem: I graduated from Dalhousie University in May and STILL can’t find a job here in the province. Sure I…
Not eating this up
To the editor, I can’t afford to buy recycling bags. Fuck capitalism: We are afraid to question consumerism because it would be attacking one of the core values of capitalism. Its solution is to have us individualize the problem: hybrid cars, organic foods, etc. Yet we are not facing the real issue: consumerism. Capitalism thrives…
Monster mash
Fast Times, a new monthly series that promises to be the MuchPunch of all events, starts up this Thursday, October 25 at the Marquee Club (10pm, $5 advance at Krisp Clothing or $7 at the door). A night of mash-ups, bands and art; this month features Team Canada DJs (Montreal), Ruby Jean and the Thoughtful…
The salon up there
In the immortal words of the Friendly Giant: look up; look way up. Otherwise, you might miss checking out Spring Garden’s latest salon. A Step Up Hair Design and Day Spa, located at 5982 Spring Garden, makes its home high above street level. It’s nestled in the third floor of the building that houses the…
Jack the lantern
Halloween is, hands down, the best holiday we have. I won’t stand for any argument here. The Marquee is capitalizing by hosting two masquerade balls. Gypsophilia play on Friday, October 26, and Hey Rosetta!, Down With The Butterfly, Tomcat Combat and The Jesuit hold it down on Saturday, October 27 (check ticketpro.com for both shows).…
Revue review
I’m sure most of you have thought you could do my job. Here’s a chance! (Note: Not my job specifically, but a job like mine.) The Sea Cucumber Revue is a new arts publication in Halifax, mostly focusing on visual arts, but they have an interest in all aspects of art and fun in Halifax,…
Boo, yeah!
If you despise Halloween, trash the sweaty plastic mask, and head out for some alternative entertainment. On Tuesday, October 30 at 7pm, bring in your pumpkins and head over to the CBC Radio Room at 5600 Sackville for Future Shorts, featuring wee works by international filmmakers, followed by a screening of Siloen Daley’s short film,…
Masked marvelling
It’s a fact: Giving makes you feel good. Dressing up makes you feel fine. Dancing makes you look like a million bucks—unless you’re Elaine Benes. So why not combine the three for CFAT’s fundraiser and digital-archive launch, Media Masquerade on Saturday, October 27 at FRED, 2606 Agricola. The line-up includes Lukas Pearse, DJ Kato, DJ…
Petting zoo
You might remember Elisabeth Belliveau’s 2004 exhibition at the newly named Khyber Institute of Contemporary Arts. The talented artist filled the Ballroom Gallery with a delightful menagerie of ready-made sculptures, created by twisting and folding worn gloves and purses into whales, ducks and doves. Belliveau, a Nova Scotian native, who now lives in Montreal, is…
On da beatings beat
The mayor’s first community session for his round table on violence was held on Monday night in the wilds of Sackville. Yes, we know: you weren’t there. Don’t lie to us and tell us you were. You weren’t. In your defence, you probably don’t live in Sackville. There’s a slightly better chance (we bet) that…
Chamber of Commerce kudos (the best kind!)
The Halifax Chamber of Commerce has announced the finalists for the 2008 Halifax Business awards. The awards will be handed out on January 31, at a sure-to-be-fancy soiree at the World Trade and Convention Centre. Finalists up for small business of the year include eco-friendly property inspectors ECCO Environmental Consulting and Contracting Inc., local beer-makers…
Call it Bellissimabby’s?
Halifax decorating institution Abby’s Fabric Shoppe closed its doors in the Hydrostone on September 22. Don’t fret, though: The shop’s new owner, Karyn McCombe, began the process of transferring Abby’s merchandise over to its new home, inside McCombe’s shop, Bellissimo! (2743 Agricola), the very next day. After spending 28 years working in the custom drape…
More Mary’s…and more milkshakes!
Can’t get enough of Mary’s Place Cafe (2752 Robie)? That’s perfectly understandable. Happily, it just got a whole lot easier to satisfy your Mary’s passion—the restaurant has extended its hours and is now open from 7am to 7:30pm, every day except Sunday. (They used to close up shop at 6pm). Why the new hours? Customer…
The Death Grip
Q I think my five-year-old nephew is probably gay. Most of the reasons are superficial (he says that Zac Efron is really cute), but I also have a hunch. If he is gay, it’s cool by me. The problem is my brother also thinks his son might be gay and he is not cool with…
Native wisdom
“When I wrote this book, I knew the contents would cause great pain for many Canadians of English descent,” reads the first sentence in Daniel Paul’s We Were Not The Savages. “It must be discomforting to come to grips with the fact,” Paul continues, “that many of your ancestors were not always the kind, gentle…
Main contender
I am out on my porch early, brushing the cat, waiting for Sheila Fougere to arrive for our interview, mulling over questions for her. One good question to ask would be whether she would be the kind of mayor who rides a bicycle or takes a bus. It’s way too early to expect an election…
Big horn
Stephen Hughes laughs often and easily during conversation, out of sheer enjoyment from talking about what he’s doing. A vocalist, arranger and multi-instrumentalist, Hughes founded The Blown Gasket Orchestra with seven of his closest musical pals. Some of them go way back—for example, Hughes and guitarist/vocalist Jon Andrews first met during grade eight in Port…
30 Days of Night / Into the Wild
30 Days of Night and Into the Wild seem to have nothing in common, except they’re both about survival in Alaska and they both suck. The vampire horror movie 30 Days of Night distills genre tradition with indulgence—a minimalist musical score, no sense of humour, until it’s no fun at all. It feels like a…
Lost Children
“I feel like Jesus,” Tina announces to no one in particular. We are sitting on a hard wooden bench outside courtroom one in the Dartmouth law courts building. We’re waiting for Tina’s lawyer to finish up another matter in another courtroom, so the wheels of justice can finally grind through the business at hand—Tina’s formal…
Eastern trails
Less than two years ago OneLight Theatre was staging plays behind a Persian grocery on Gottingen Street in a small space called The Crib. Now they have a downtown office across from Neptune Theatre. From their windows they can easily read Neptune Studio’s marquee: “OneLight Theatre’s The Veil. Production sponsored by Tabrizi Oriental Rugs, Oct…
Driving lessons
Filmmaker Sam Fisher’s first play In The Backseat wraps up our post 9/11 concerns and fears in a comedic wrapper.
Underneath the Lintel
The audience in the tiny Theatre NS Space on Agricola is packed cheek to jowl. The room is hot. The chairs are hard. Yet, the discomfort ceases to matter when a Dutch librarian (Christian Murray) steps onto the stage and begins his 90-minute monologue about a quest that starts with a library book returned 113…
The Vertical Hour
Don’t go to The Vertical Hour expecting to sit back and be entertained. It’s filled with too many words and ideas for that to happen, with the action consisting of little more than a character pouring wine or fetching coffee. It is essentially a battle of wits and ideologies between Nadia (Carmen Grant), a political…
In the Backseat
First-time playwright Sam Fisher has proved himself a man to watch with In the Backseat. While not a perfect play—its world view is too unrelentingly negative, and the dialogue between the two romantic leads is, at times, preachy and stilted—it is a thought-provoking one, and entertaining, to boot. The story is about an immigrant cab…
Romantic Comedy
There’s a line in Bernard Slade’s Romantic Comedy that says something to the effect that nothing in life should last longer than two hours. If only the playwright had heeded his own words! The first act of this three-hour play is top-notch. It’s well-paced and the laughs are plentiful. Stacey Fownes as Phoebe, the quirky,…
Attacked in Halifax
Share your personal experiences of violence on the streets of Halifax – where and when, who and how. We all know friends who have been been jumped downtown, or we’ve been through it ourselves. Help The Coast give the city an accurate picture of what’s actually going on. And while we’re on the subject, check…
Cal Lane: Crude
Cal Lane’s vision is like no other in Canadian art. Turning everyday, hard-working objects into art, Lane elevates the potential meanings of wheelbarrows, oil cans, shovels and more. If we’re to use a spade, for example, to help beautify our landscape with a garden, why shouldn’t a shovel be a beautiful thing? She turns these…
Fareen Haq
Internationally acclaimed artist Farheen HaQ creates visible poetics. The Victoria-based video/performance artist and photographer crafts a visual representation of humanity, and her body of work is reminiscent of the context, ambiguity and intimate sexuality found in Jeanette Winterson novels. As with Winterson, she draws parallels between ritual, gesture, gender and cultural depictions of the body.…
Oh beans!
Jane Kansas espouses her love and appreciation for beans, beans, the magical fruit…
Hiding places
Ang Lee’s films vary wildly in scope, subject and setting—think gay cowboys in rural America (Brokeback Mountain), swinging WASPs in 1970s New England (The Ice Storm), a Jane Austen adaptation (Sense and Sensibility), old-school Chinese assassins (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), a CGI rageholic just trying to sort out his daddy issues (Hulk). But while you…
Heated debate
Hey you! Yes you, you wine-sipping, art-plotting, outdoor-cafe patronizing, cosmopolitan urbanite! You’re killing the planet. Cut it out, dammit. Yea, sure, we all want to live in an oh-so-sophisticated town, with cool little restaurants and sidewalk cafes, just like Paris in the summer. But you know something? Halifax isn’t Paris and Argyle Street isn’t the…
This week’s horoscopes
Dress up as a pregnant painter or a sexy midwife for Halloween, Cancer, says Rob Brezsny
